Conde Nast to Promote Bob Sauerberg to CEO

Taking over from Charles Townsend, the current president of the publishing company will assume his new role and duties in January.

Bob Sauerberg is set to become CEO of Conde Nast in January the company announced on Sunday.

The mass media giant, who operates heavyweight titles Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, also announced that current CEO Charles H. Townsend will become Chairman of Condé Nast U.S., with S.I. Newhouse Jr. assuming a Chairman Emeritus role.

Sauerberg, 54, the incumbent president of Conde Nast, will keep that role as well as adding the title of CEO and will assume responsibility for the company's strategic and day-to-day operations a statement said.

Townsend, who became CEO in 2004, will leave his role after shepherding the group through a period of transition from a print focused company to one of the biggest digital media companies on Internet. Under Townsend's watch, the digital audience for Conde Nast's various titles grew from 17.2 million unique monthly visitors five years ago to 87.3 million today. The group also boasts 111 million followers across the various social media platforms.

Sauerberg, who spearheaded Conde Nast's subscription deals with Apple and Amazon, will be charged with continuing to grow the company's digital business and tackle the issue of declining print ad spend by luxury companies.

In a statement Sauerberg said he was "thrilled" to accept the role of CEO, he added: “Audiences and advertisers have always come to us for the quality of our content—each brand has its distinctive personality and particular brilliance—but we also want to make sure those audiences are able to access our brands on all possible platforms. It's my job to make sure we remain true to our sense of quality and, at the same time, deliver it efficiently and beautifully, as only Condé Nast can”.